Hi everybody! I've fallen in love with the Kreon line, and I've enjoyed customizing my figures with painted Shapeways parts, mostly by the uber-talented Tresob. If you're interested, you can find my custom painting thread here: http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/radicons-customs/998912-yet-another-custom-kreon-thread.html

However, Hasbro hasn't yet put out all of the characters I want, and I'm a little worried about the difficulties in availability in recent waves. Also, the upcoming Kre-o product seems to be leaning away from expanding the G1 cast, which is what I'm mostly interested in. I've been inspired by mightyspacepope's previous decal work, and I have an abiding desire to find excuses to need ever more of Tresob's amazing Shapeways stuff, so this has led me to start creating some decals of my own. Hence this thread, of course! I've been refining my technique for several weeks now and I'm finally comfortable posting what I've come up with.

Some notes on the decals themselves:

• My intent was for these to be made into water-slide decals, which allows me to cover more of the body than just the flat areas like the chest. While the shoulders are fair game, I think the rounded arms are too curvy even for water slides.
• Note that some of these designs assume I'll be using one of Tresob's helmets, so I might give a character a mouth instead of a faceplate if I know the helmet will provide the faceplate anyway.
• If you're interested in printing these out for your own use, they are scaled at 600 dpi (which, I believe, is the same as mightyspacepope's), so the decals should be highly detailed.
• I've tried to match decal colors to standard Kre-o plastic colors as best I can, mostly by eyeballing it. I got some really close (according to my own printer) like the purplish blue, but others like the red are kinda close but noticeably off.

I hope you guys enjoy!

I can describe the process and give some tips, but I don't know that there's enough detail necessary for a full-blown tutorial.

First off, I recommend using a vector graphics program, rather than raster graphics. I use Inkscape, which is free and is available for most operating systems.

I start with a blank template. The boxes on the face area represent where the eyes and mouth should go and the "main" area where drawing should go to be seen within most helmets.

TFW2005 doesn't allow me to attach the vector data file, so I've exported the template as an image, which you can trace for your own use. Or, if you want to save yourself that effort, you can IM me your email address, and I'll send the template to you that way.

As for how to draw, that's just a matter of practice, trial and error, and personal skill. In terms of style, I try to capture the major visual elements of a character without getting too complicated -- reduce the design to simple shapes that communicate the essence of the character.

In terms of technique, I tend to outline most shapes in black to make them more defined and to give them the visual style that kreons tend to have. I recommend using 0.5mm line width for major elements and 0.3mm for fine details. Anything smaller than that will be hard to see once printed. The tools in the vector program will help in aligning things and achieving symmetry.

I've also attached a palette. I've arrived at this by eyeballing the printed output of my color laser printer with stock kreon plastics, but it's possible these colors won't align quite as well on all printers.

I actually do more complicated things with layering to allow me to print on either clear or white label paper, but if you're just sticking with white paper, that's not important and the types of decal images I've been posting in this thread should work fine.

• You could print to regular paper and tape it on.
• You'll probably get a better look if you print to label paper (Avery is a popular brand). This should probably work pretty well for all pieces except the face.
• The best results I've seen are on water slide paper, as that curves well to rounded surfaces (like the head).

This brand has worked well for me: Waterslide Decal Transfer Paper Inkjet 5 Sheets White Dark Black Background | eBay

Note, there is a difference between inkjet and laser printer paper, so get the right one for your printer. If it's inkjet, you'll also need to use an acrylic spray after printing and before soaking (such as Krylon Acrylic Crystal Clear High Gloss). You don't need that with a laser printer.

Also, there are clear and white paper options. You'll probably want white paper unless your intended background color is very light, in which case you can try clear.

The advantage of clear is you don't have to worry about color-matching the background color. The draw-back is that since printers don't print white ink and assume the paper is white, the decal is going to be semi-transparent, which doesn't work well on medium or dark backgrounds.

I believe that would be the logical equivalent of using white water slide decal paper (insofar as the paper itself is opaque white). It is easy, but it doesn't let the plastic underneath show through. If the decal's color-matching is spot on, then it'll look good. But if it's a shade or two off, it looks awkward to me, which is why I try to use clear decal paper when I can. Avery makes clear sticky labels too, if you want to try that out, though I've heard it's a little frosted and not perfectly clear.

 

So here's my first batch of decals:

• Seaspray
• Cosmos
• Blurr
• Wreck Gar
• Ultra Magnus
• Tracks
• Grapple
• Drift

I love the personality Kreo allows figures to have. This was my inspiration for that facial expression: Seaspray had just been blown a kiss from a mermaid:



I've taken a number of mightyspacepope's chest decals, traced them and tweaked them slightly to my style, and added decals for a few other body parts. Full credit to mightyspacepope for the bulk of this design:

• Blaster
• Astrotrain
• Nightbeat
• Shrapnel
• Skullcruncher
• Weirdwolf
• Sludge
• Swoop

A little more love for seasons 1 and 2:

• Reflector
• Blitzwing
• Slag
• Snarl
• (silver) Bluestreak
• Smokescreen (& wings)

Here are some Wreckers:

• Roadbuster
• Whirl
• Topspin
• Twin Twist
• Broadside
• Impactor

Some Autobot Headmasters and Targetmasters:

• Chromedome
• Hardhead
• Brainstorm
• Pointblank
• Crosshairs

And now, the Actionmasters:

• Banzaitron
• Krok
• Rad
• Kick Off
• Over Run
• Mainframe

And now for the rise of the Decepticon Pretenders:

• Octopunch
• Skullgrin
• Bomb-Burst
• Stranglehold
• Thunderwing
• Black Shadow

Man, the Autobots are going to need some Pretenders of their own! I've left off the heads because there are a million Kreon human heads out there to choose from.

• Landmine
• Cloudburst
• Waverider
• Metal Hawk
• Longtooth

I'm with you on that: I kind of think of kreons as composite characters across multiple incarnations, to a certain degree. For me, what details become dominant depend on what iteration of the character has left the strongest impression on me. Swerve is one of those G1 guys with limited original characterization who has later become much more interesting in the comics. Here's my take on Swerve:

You know what this thread needs? Some more henchmen!

• Runabout
• Runamuck
• Flywheels
• Battletrap

As I've mentioned before, the primary purpose of these decals is to serve in my own collection, and I like to use Tresob's Shapeways parts to further distinguish the individual characters. I mostly use his unique helmets, but Tresob also makes vests and replacement torsos. I aesthetically prefer the charm of the flat minifig chest for the majority of my collection, but for certain characters, I like having 3D details for the chest. For me, this includes:

• Bots whose depth of chest feels especially important to their visual characterization (eg: Brawn, Brawl)
• Really big bots where the vest helps them look more physically imposing (eg: Overlord, Unicron)
• Fembots where I feel the 3rd dimension helps capture their curves

The point of all that exposition about my personal preferences is to explain why the decals for this batch were designed for figures I intend to use with Tresob's vests/torsos. For purposes of completeness, I decided to make chest decals to post here (though I won't be using them myself) in case others prefer a strictly flat-chest look. Also, I wanted to credit Tresob with the general design of these chest decals since I basically tried to translate his vest designs down to 2 dimensions.

• Unicron
• Overlord
• Fort Max
• Windblade
• Chromia

Thanks! I'm glad you guys enjoy them. Here's a few more:

• The Fallen (Dreamwave)
• Straxus
• Fastlane/Cloudraker
• Darkwing
• Rewind & Eject (for micro-figs)

Man, this one was tricky. Minimus Ambus has a fairly complicated chest design and micro-figs give very little room to work with anyway. I was at least able to capture the colors and the vague shapes of his chest. I'd love to see a pic of it in action if you decide to use it!

I decided the stock Swindle face is just entirely unsatisfactory -- he's supposed to look slimy, not grumpy! Here's my take on it:

While my heart primarily lies with the G1 cast, I do very much enjoy modern TF media, and sometimes it's fun to adopt great new characters into the classic pantheon, as I think IDW has done effectively.

Animated was a favorite series of mine, so I'm glad characters like Bulkhead and Lugnut got the official Kreon treatment. I decided to try my hand at Lockdown as well.

I'm not as hot on the Movie aesthetic or the complicated tampos they bring to kreon, but I did dig Guido Guidi's take on G1-ifying Barricade. I decided to stick with the more black-and-white scheme, instead of Guido's dark gray version.

• Lockdown (Animated)
• Barricade (Movie)

I just got back to my home computer from vacation, so I was finally able to work on these. In case anyone prefers the regular size for Tailgate, I did one of those too.

• IDW Ratchet
• Tailgate
• Micro Tailgate
• Micro Swerve

Here's a request I got from beldon123 via PM: Flame!

Roadbuster face with traditional faceplate:

Glyph with alternate face:

Thanks! Jazz should work pretty well if you want to emphasize the visored look. It should also make her look further distinct from Bumblebee, if that's something you want.

Next up: Cybertron Dirt Boss

Fisitron... I mean, Ironfist!

Shattered Glass Optimus Prime

G2 Megatron

Megatron loves you too, in a way that only a fusion cannon can properly convey.  

And now: Minelba... er, Minerva!

Here you go:

Flamewar

Cybertron Override

• Gigatron
• Devil Gigatron

TF Prime: Ripclaw

The Predacons insignia is kind of complicated. I'm not sure how good it will look when printed at scale.

Alpha Bravo

Here's IDW Bumblebee for you. Whenever I think of that incarnation of the character, I think "angsty", so that's the explanation for the facial expression I went for.

 

Here are some examples using these:

From Meister5:

Mini Minimus  



and used some of your labels to upgrade my Magnus




I upgraded my Ratchet:



Your labels look great, thanks for making them!

From aikitim:

"The swerve I did up with your decal:"

 

Needs basic edit
Needs organization.

I'd like to see these tackled and finished: http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/tutorials-how-tos/978086-kreon-torso-decals-ranger-silver-6-a.html

 

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/tutorials-how-tos/1052304-yet-another-custom-kreon-decal-thread.html

Here is another thread. This would make an excellent multi-part tutorial resource.

Goal is to truncate everything down for ease of use and to be a handy resource.